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Epson printer ink or Refill?

I have an Epson 580 and the time has come for a refill.
With Epson saying "use original ink cartridges only" how do unbranded refills fair?
Do they shorten the printers lifetime?
How much do Epson ink cartridges (black and colour) compare to refills?
Any advice is appreciated.

I think the advice applies only if you donít use your printer a lot. People seem to have good experiences with the aftermarket Epson cartridges if they print a lot and use good quality refills. The non-Epson cartridges might have a tendency to clog if they are not used much but seem to work fine for people who do high volume printing.

HP and Lexmark have a different system where new print heads come with the cartridges. There arenít cheap refill cartridges available so the only option to paying the high manufacturerís price is to learn to refill your own.

I can easily empty a color cartridge in a day of photo quality printing so I need the alternative unless I want to limit my printing. I have a HP so I have to refill my own, but if I had an Epson I would surely use the cheaper cartridges from a reliable source.

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If you can keep your head while others around you are losing theirs, then there is something you don't know

If you can keep your head while others around you are losing theirs, then there is something you don't know

Personally I'd say avoid 3rd party cartridges and refills like the plague. Shops sell them because they know customers like a cheaper option, and often falsly claim "They're just ask good".

Fact is they're not. Sometimes the 3rd party cartridges are just empty ones that have been re-filled. So there's the likelyhood of introduced dust and air into the system, as well as dried ink, since the seal must have been broken in order to re-fill it.

My last Espon died because we were using re-filled cartridges. Many friends in a Corel user group have had the same problem (a lot of professional printers there).

There can also be a difference in image quality, especially with photo-quality prints on gloss paper. Cheap stuff can show up with strange almost oily/metalic appearance.

funny i dont have this problem with hp, lexmark or canon. refill work like a charm.
dont buy epson if you like refilling, this printer isn't made to last or for occasional use. if you like to print stuff every single day even junk stuff then epson then it made just right for U. some place don't recommend or sell refill for epson, that why. trust me, let it sit there for 3 day, and suddently clogged up. it has this annoying habit of cleaning itself when turnin off and on, oh cool right?? not, it become irriting and you get fed up with it. I even talked to epson representative at Best Buy, they say that the cool thing about it. LMAO!
actually there wasn't any representative for epson, only lexmark, hp and canon thought hehe they must suck. i made a promise never to buy EPSON again even if it mean over my dead body. high quality print head is all that it good for, maybe too good for everyday printing. everytime it clean it self, epson that is, it wastes ink squirking all over the place inside where the print head park that it is best to leave it on 24hrs a day then again that why it clogged in the first place when I use it hehe I don't know what.

Must have been a while since you looked an Epson, as that problem with forever cleaning the print-heads every time you turn the printer on and wasting ink in the process, has since been addressed in the newer models.

That process is now shorter, and uses up much much less ink.

The Epson's do have superb photo-quality printing. I personally believe it's the best quality.

However, they're not for everyone, and although I like Epson (because I do a lot of graphics), I recommend that for standard use with occasional printing and a majority of just text and simple images, the HP range is usually better. Mainly because I do believe the heads are longer lasting and they tend to be more reliable.

Although recently I did have a few problems with HP's low-end printers dying, luckily covered by warrenty.

I've re-filled my Epson 700's black ink cartridge a few times. The ink kit I use has definitley got blacker ink.
I did overfill it once, and it splattered ink inside the printer, and left a mark on the edge of every sheet printed for several weeks, so that was a lesson learnt.
The most times I've ever re-filled a cartridge is 3 times. I tried 4 times once, but the quality went to pieces. I thought the printer was knackered at the time, but popping in a new cartridge sorted it out. I've now re-filled that cartridge too, and everything's fine.
I've personally said I won't try re-filling one again more than 3 times. And at the cost of new Epson cartridges, I'll save myself enough to buy a new printer within a couple of years. Whether it'll last that long is another matter - but I feel certain that the ink re-filling won't contribute too much to its demise.
I leave my printer on most of the time, and it doesn't reduce the number of cleaning operatins because when I hit the print button it often cleans itself. I'm sure it doesn't need to do it that often!
I'm not so confident about re-filling the colour cartridges, partly because it means re-filling 4 colours, and partly because there's bound to be a slight difference in results (remember I said that the black ink re-fills I use are "blacker").
Those are my experience with re-filling so far, hope they help.

Because epson uses high quality ink, refill is not recommended. remember that you only got 1 head and replacing it can be quite expensive. costing you just as much as a new epson printer. I bet by the time this happen, the warranty is over. unfortunately most cheap refill are of lower quality and are more likely to clog the head. with HP, if the head is clogged getting a new cartridge pretty much solve it. same with lexmark, new head everytime with new cartridge so you see, you can refill all you like without any worry of clogging but the resoultion is 600x600 at medium vs epson of 720x720 so it only a little difference and you really have to look at it 24hrs a day to even notice it.while epson may look best at highest it is also very slow at resolution of 1440x1440 which can take about 10min for a full 1 page picture. the other printer such as HP,Lexmark at highest are also just as slow. with a res. of 1200x1200. it look only a little better thought but very ink consuming as well.